Amid increasing security concerns in Haiti, UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon asked the Security Council on Monday to send an additional 1,500 police and 2,000 military troops to help keep law and order in the quake-hit island country.

Ban Kimoon on Monday requested the Security Council to raise the number of UN police officers and troops in the Haiti mission by 1,500 and 2000 respectively. [Xinhua]

The security reinforcements are expected to bolster ground support for relief efforts led by the UN Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, which currently has about 7,000 troops and 2,000 international police around Haiti, including 3,000 in the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince.

"The heartbreaking scenes I saw yesterday compels us to act swiftly and generously today and over the longer term," Ban said. "The Haitian people need to see that today is better than yesterday. They need to believe that the future will be better than the past."

Ban Kimoon on Monday requested the Security Council to raise the number of UN police officers and troops in the Haiti mission by 1,500 and 2000 respectively. [Xinhua]

Ban traveled to Haiti on Sunday to asses the aftermath of the devastating magnitude-7.3 earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation on Tuesday, an event the UN chief has called "one of the most serious crises in decades."

Damage to critical infrastructure and a jammed airport have slowed aid distribution, causing thousands of Haitians to struggle on their own for food and water.

Over the weekend, horrific reports of vigilante justice from the streets of the capital seeped out to the world. In one incident, a looter was beaten, dragged through the streets and set on fire, left to burn to death, according to local media reports.